The skepticism is over what you mentioned, ascending players. We don't have a sure thing.
Of the returning guys, Sadiq feels like he should be ascending. I'm a bigger Kiyan fan than most, but his best basketball needs to be ahead of him, and he's going to have to work like crazy to get to where we need him as a fully realized basketball player.
On the new guys...
Goodrick is pretty likely to be better than Souare, who is not good at basketball, and that's about it, and hopefully about all we need him to be.
Our Euro is intriguing but is no sure thing. So we do hope he ascends.
Doty had a strong year at Siena but is making a huge leap going to the ACC. We have to hope he's ascending in a huge way since GMAC has suggested he's a big part of the plans.
Dual I like more than most but his biggest plus is his experience and he has the kind of measurables and defensive advance stats the analytics nerds get horny over. But this is another case where we're hoping he's ascending.
The appeal to bringing in GMAC was he would have the best donor support, ie best NIL, ie get the best talent we can.
What we've seen manifest SO FAR, and could change, is a lottery ticket approach hoping enough guys ascend. We don't have a single sure thing RIGHT NOW.